Quarterback The Chargers considered making a franchise altering move this off-season. Philip Rivers has been with the team since they drafted him 4th overall in 2004 and has started all 144 games for them over the past 9 seasons, since becoming the starter in 2006. However, with Rivers going into an age 34 contract year, [...]

Barksdale was shockingly still available this late in free agency. Barksdale was a 3rd round pick of the Raiders in 2011, but he barely played in his first 2 seasons in the league, playing 282 snaps in 2011-2012 combined. He became a starter in 2013 with the Rams, grading out as Pro Football Focus’ 25th ranked offensive [...]

Patrick Robinson has essentially been a bust as a 2010 1st round pick, but it hasn’t been for lack of talent. He’s just missed 22 games in 5 seasons and had serious trouble consistently staying healthy and on the field. His best season came in 2011, when he played 15 games (7 starts) and graded out [...]

Steve Johnson had three straight thousand yard seasons from 2010-2012, despite questionable quarterback play in Buffalo. However, in the past 2 seasons he’s barely combined for 1000 yards, catching a combined 77 passes for 1032 yards and 6 touchdowns. That might lead you to think that he’s struggled in back-to-back seasons. That’s not entirely true. [...]

It’s hard to love this move as it likely means Jimmy Wilson will likely be the starter in the secondary for the Chargers in 2015. He’ll play Marcus Gilchrist’s old role as a hybrid safety/cornerback, moving to the slot in sub packages with Jahleel Addae coming in at safety. It fits his skill set as [...]

Two off-seasons ago, the Broncos stole one of the Chargers’ offensive linemen, signing Louis Vasquez to a 4-year, 23.5 million dollar deal with 13 million guaranteed. That worked out well. This off-season, the Chargers return the favor by signing ex-Bronco Orlando Franklin to a 5-year, 36.5 million dollar deal with 20 million guaranteed. Like the [...]

Flowers was Pro Football Focus’ 85th ranked cornerback out of 110 eligible in 2013, which led to his release from Kansas City, but, aside from that, he’s been one of the best cornerbacks in football over the last 6 years. From 2009-2012, Flowers graded out in the top-9 among cornerbacks on Pro Football Focus in [...]

Positions of Need Guard Chad Rinehart and Johnnie Troutman were awful last season at guard for the Chargers, grading out 73rd and 77th respectively out of 78 eligible. Chris Watt, a 2014 3rd round pick, was decent as a rookie on 496 snaps at both guard and center. He should have a bigger role in [...]

King Dunlap, a 2008 7th round pick, started 6 games in his first 4 seasons combined, but he’s started 39 games (38 at left tackle and 1 at right tackle) over the past 3 seasons, 2012 with the Eagles and 2013 and 2014 with the Chargers. He graded out 37th in 2012, 6th in 2013, [...]

San Diego Chargers (9-6) at Kansas City Chiefs (8-7) The Chiefs beat the Chargers in San Diego earlier this season, but that’s because the Chargers were in a terrible spot (the worst spot I’ve seen all since), with a Thursday Night road game in Denver on deck, while the Chiefs only had a home game [...]

San Diego Chargers (8-6) at San Francisco 49ers (7-7) The public is all over the Chargers here. It’s understandable. The 49ers have lost 3 straight games, haven’t covered since week 11 in New York against the Giants and haven’t covered at home since week 13 of last season. They’ve been eliminated from the playoffs and [...]

Denver Broncos (10-3) at San Diego Chargers (8-5) Denver is the best team in the league in rate of moving the chains differential, moving them at a 77.73% rate, as opposed to 71.29% for their opponents, a differential of 6.44%. However, this line is still too high at 4.5. San Diego has a solid squad [...]

New England Patriots (9-3) at San Diego Chargers (8-4) On the season, the Patriots are moving the chains at a 78.05% rate, as opposed to 73.15% for their opponents, a differential of 4.90% that ranks 2nd in the NFL. Meanwhile, the Chargers move the chains at a 74.93% rate, as opposed to 73.64% for their [...]

San Diego Chargers (6-5) at Baltimore Ravens (7-4) This line is way too low. The Ravens rank 5th in the NFL in rate of moving the chains differential, moving the chains at a 76.84% rate, as opposed to 72.29% for their opponents, a differential of 4.55%. The Chargers, meanwhile, rank 15th, moving the chains at [...]

St. Louis Rams (4-6) at San Diego Chargers (6-4) I’m completely split on this. On one hand, the Rams could easily be overconfident and off of a fluky win over the Broncos last week. The Broncos had more first downs (21 and 16) and an equal amount of offensive touchdowns (1), as the Rams were [...]

Oakland Raiders (0-9) at San Diego Chargers (5-4) I’m completely split on this one. On one hand, this seems like a perfect spot for the Chargers to bounce back off of back-to-back big losses on the road in Denver and Miami. Despite those two losses, they are still significantly better than the Raiders, to the [...]

San Diego Chargers (5-3) at Miami Dolphins (4-3) The Chargers were blown out in Denver last week, but there are a few reasons why I see them bouncing back this week. The most obvious is that this is a much easier game than last week. As solid as Miami has been this season, they definitely [...]

San Diego Chargers (5-2) at Denver Broncos (5-1) The Broncos have generally been very good at home in the Peyton Manning era, going 14-7 ATS as home favorites of 3 or more. That hasn’t been the case against these Chargers, who have covered in all 3 instances in Denver as 3+ point underdogs since 2012. [...]

Kansas City Chiefs (2-3) at San Diego Chargers (4-1) The Chargers are in about as bad as a spot as a team can be this week. They have a huge game 4 days after this in Denver, arguably the biggest game of their season. This game here is important because it’s a divisional game obviously, [...]

San Diego Chargers (4-1) at Oakland Raiders (0-4) The Chargers have broken out as one of the top teams in the NFL and are a legitimate contender. Their offense has continued to be as good as it was last season. Last season, they moved the chains at a 78.26% rate, 2nd in the NFL. This [...]

New York Jets (1-3) at San Diego Chargers (3-1) The Chargers are in the better spot here. While they only have to deal with the Raiders in Oakland next week, the Jets have to deal with the Broncos at home, a much tougher game. Teams are 52-26 ATS as non-divisional home favorites before being divisional [...]

Jacksonville Jaguars (0-3) at San Diego Chargers (2-1) The Jaguars are one of three remaining 0-3 teams. They have the worst point differential in the NFL at -75. The second worst is Tampa Bay at -50 and the majority of that (-42) came last week. The third worst is St. Louis at -29. The Jaguars [...]

San Diego Chargers (1-1) at Buffalo Bills (2-0) The Bills are 2-0 and they’ve been very good at home over the past two seasons, going 7-1 ATS in the city of Buffalo since the start of the 2013 season and 8-1 ATS in their last 9 home games. The Chargers, meanwhile, are coming off of [...]

Seattle Seahawks (1-0) at San Diego Chargers (1-0) I really hate to go against the Seahawks. They were obviously Super Bowl champs last year and deserving ones at that and now they return with their same young core. They looked every bit as good as they always had last week, beating the Packers 36-16 in [...]

San Diego Chargers (0-0) at Arizona Cardinals (0-0) It’s hard to find a team that has lost as much talent since the last time we played football as the Cardinals, particularly defensively. Karlos Dansby is gone as a free agent. Daryl Washington was suspended for the season. Darnell Dockett is out for the season with [...]